Rebel group releases kidnapped Colombian journalist

Colombian
journalist Élida Parra Alonso, who was kidnapped
on July 24, 2012, by a local guerrilla group in the northeastern state of Arauca, was
released on August 13, 2012, according to news
reports. Parra hosts a program for Sarare Estéreo radio station and does
community outreach work for Oleoducto Bicentenario, a company constructing an
oil pipeline that it says will be the largest in the country, news reports said.

Gina Paola Uribe Villamizar, an engineer for
the pipeline, was also abducted that day, according to news reports.

Six days after the women were kidnapped, the
National Liberation Army (ELN), a local rebel group, sent a statement to their families,
saying it was holding them and that it considered the pipeline a military
target, according to news reports.
Pipelines have long been targeted by leftist guerrilla groups in Colombia's
armed conflict as a symbol of the alleged exploitation of natural resources
and, authorities say, as a means of financial extortion, according to news reports.

On August 2, 2012, the group released a proof-of-life
video that showed the women sitting in front of a banner with the group's
insignia, according to news reports. Eleven days later, the women were
released to delegates of the International Red Cross, news reports said. It is
not known whether a ransom was paid, the reports said.

Parra told The Associated Press that the
rebels never fully explained why she had been kidnapped, except to say that it
was related to her work at the pipeline.